Book 1: Chaos Descends
by Shiningheart of ThunderClan
Summary: StarClan has faded, and the Clans are only a myth. The lake is ruled by rogues with no code of honor, yet have honor in their blood. When a young kit named Chaos begins to have nightmares, he'll embark on a journey so perilous he may not live to see the end. Will Chaos bring the Clans back or be just another life lost?


**Title: Book one of the Chaos series: Chaos Descends**

**Rating: T**

**Genre: Adventure and Drama**

**Summary:**

**StarClan has faded, and the Clans are only a myth. The lake is ruled by rogues with no code of honor, yet have honor in their blood. When a young kit named Chaos begins to have nightmares, he'll embark on a journey so perilous he may not live to see the end. Will Chaos bring the Clans back or be just another life lost?**

**Notes: Disregard The Last Hope, if you've read it. In this story, the Dark Forest won.**

**Disclaimer: Shiningheart does not own Warriors.**

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_Cats writhed on the ground, teeth and claws flashing silver in the moonlight. Yowls and shrieks split the air, borne of anger and pain and sadness and hatred. A flame-colored tom spat angrily as a dark brown tabby tom held him down. Green eyes, blazing with fury, stared up at the victor of their fight. Amber eyes, bright with triumph and insanity, met. The ginger tom hissed up at him, "Now what, Tigerstar? What will my death achieve? The Clans will only fight harder. You lose!" _

_Tigerstar chuckled menacingly, his unsheathed claws digging painfully into his prey's fur. The ginger tom winced in pain. "Firestar, you should know better by now. Watch." Tigerstar yowled loudly, and all of the fighting suddenly stopped. Clan cats and Dark Forest cats alike turned to look at the interruption, and horror crept in with excitement as they saw what was happening. "For seasons, the cowards of StarClan have ruled. They prosper in the sunlight with prey while we, the strong, have been left in the festering woods." The Dark Forest cats yowled in agreement. "Let all you fools who still cling to their weakness witness as StarClan's champion dies with them!" _

_He suddenly lunged down and buried his fangs deeply into Firestar's neck. Firestar's wail of pain echoed in the minds of the Clan cats long after his eyes went dull and his body went limp. The Fire that StarClan had prophesized finally went out. Tigerstar lifted his head high, his muzzle and chest turned red with the blood of his enemy. "Now bow down, fools. Tigerstar has won!"_

"CHAOS, WAKE UP!" The light gray tabby leaped to his paws at the yell and stared with wide, terrified eyes. Two faces matching his own stared back at him, one in concern and one in annoyance. A tom and a she-cat, both light gray like himself. The tom had black tabby markings around his face that rippled down his pelt, and amber eyes. He'd been the one to give the annoyed yell. "You were kicking us in your sleep, fur-ball! _Again!" _

Chaos flattened his ears and looked down at the ground. Now that he was awake, his dream seemed twice as scary. He'd rather face his irate brother than that dreadful tabby. What had his name been? Tiger-something? He couldn't remember now, though those eyes were something he would never forget. "S-Sorry, Bane." He glanced at his sister. "Sorry, Fern."

Fern tilted her head in worry, her green eyes darkening. "This is the third time this moon, Chaos. Please, what's bothering you? What are these dreams about?" Chaos flinched at the reminder and shook his head swiftly, his entire body quivering. Fern sighed and touched her nose to his ear. "Don't worry, brother. These dreams will stop soon. They have to, right?"

She looked at her elder brother for confirmation, but Bane just snorted. "Yeah, sure. Whatever. It's not even normal to have recurring dreams, let alone the kind that freak him out so badly!" Chaos crouched submissively at the words, and the eldest of them softened slightly. "Bah, it's not important anyway. Come on, we need to hunt before the older cats wake up." His words spurred the other two on, and they left their shared den.

Chaos, like always when he first woke up, climbed the hills that surrounded them and stared in awe at the place they called their home. The lake shined brightly in the morning light, dazzling him in more ways than one. The forest opposite them seemed to be bathed in golden light from the rising sun, even the shadowy pine trees that usually caused a shiver to run down his spine.

His sister and brother joined him. Bane stood at his left with his head held low, staring down at the lake. Chaos knew from experience that he'd suggest fish for the morning, since the oldest cats didn't enjoy them. Fern stood at Bane's other shoulder, putting the biggest of the three of them in the center. She, unlike her brother, raised her head high to feel the wind in her whiskers. She'd always felt the most at home in the hills, with little to no shelter from the blazing sun and raging storms. She'd either want to hunt for rabbits or birds in the forest to the west of them.

Chaos, for his part, didn't care where they hunted. He wouldn't be any good at it anyway. He just wanted to enjoy time with his siblings and take in the beauty around them. It was like clockwork; his littermates started bickering over where to hunt. What wasn't routine, though, was the flittering shadows at the edge of his vision. Every time Chaos turned his head to look, they'd disappear until he looked away again. Then they'd come back.

He tried to stay silent about it; it wasn't the first time these shadows have haunted him. But the horror of his nightmare made him less inconspicuous. Bane felt him fidgeting, and turned to glare at him. "Okay, fine then, where do _you_ want to go Chaos?" Both the littlest and the only she-cat stared at him in shock. Bane rarely let Chaos have any say, in anything. Bane rolled his amber eyes in annoyance. "You're shuffling your paws like you just want to get on with it. Since you seem so impatient this morning, you can choose."

Chaos and Fern looked at each other, identical green eyes filling with amusement. It was funny. _Bane_ calling _Chaos_ impatient? The irony was incredible. But Chaos wouldn't let this chance leave. When the shadows came back to dancing in his vision, he followed them. He sensed Bane and Fern exchange confused looks at his urgency before taking his lead. "So, Chaos, where do you plan on taking us?" Fern asked in curiosity.

He paused, not really sure. But those shadows were still there, except now they were dancing, beckoning to him. They looked different than regular shadows. The way he'd been heading was towards the stream that cuts through the forest, away from the stables the twolegs kept horses in. But the shadows weren't leading there, he didn't think. When he followed them before, they seemed to want him to follow that icy cold stream. Bane and Fern usually kept him from wandering away, though, so he never really got to see what they wanted him to see.

What made him think the shadows were anything, anyway? What made him even think they wanted him to follow them? He couldn't really explain it, but it was more of a gut instinct, an unnamed force in his mind that screamed at him: _follow those shadows!_ Chaos had never told his siblings about them, but he figured now was the time. He turned to look at Bane and Fern, the seriousness and uncertainty on his face. They sensed the change and sat down, realizing this may take time. "I... have some things to tell you guys..."

He took a deep breath and gulped to gather his nerves. Bane cast a look at the sun and frowned. "Whatever you have to say, can you hurry it up? The older cats will be up soon, and then we won't get anything all day!" Fern nudged him reproachfully, and the biggest light gray tabby rolled his eyes with an exaggerated sigh. "Fine. Are you going to explain those dreams now?"

Chaos jerked back in surprise. Now that his brother mentioned them, he realized that those shadows had first appeared when he started having those dreams. "Yes, that and more." Bane stared at him and Fern gaped. Whenever either one mentioned the dreams, Chaos usually clammed up in fear. Now, though, it was different. "Do you remember the first time I had a bad dream?" They nodded. "There was a huge dark brown tabby with a broken tail, and he was killing kits. There was the body of a light gray queen nearby, dead eyes still stretched open like the last thing she saw was the murdering happening in front of her. I was watching him, and then suddenly I _was_ one of those kits. He just kept going towards me, no matter how much I tried to get away. I woke up just when he was about to kill me."

He looked back and forth between his littermates. Fern looked a little sick while Bane looked angry. "Your brain has issues, Chaos." he spat, lashing his tail. "The heck kind of cat kills kits? Even the rogues around here don't do that!"

The kit gave an uncomfortable shrug and looked at Fern. She gulped loudly and whispered, "That's... That's horrible... Are your other dreams like that too?" He nodded and shuffled his paws, waiting for further reaction. Fern took a deep breath to steady herself and meowed, "Alright then. Let's keep going and you can tell us on the way, okay?" She looked at Bane, and both she and Chaos waited for the okay. He was the leader of their little trio and usually knew best.

He looked at his only brother thoughtfully before shaking his head. "No, we'll lose our appetites if we try hunting now. Let's find a place under the shade and he can tell us the rest." He led the way towards the forest, and the three walked in silence. Chaos gulped a little, beginning to second guess himself. What if they didn't believe him? What if they thought he had bees in his brain and chased him away? What if they disowned him as their brother and didn't want anything to do with him?

By the time Bane was satisfied with their location, Chaos had half-convinced himself to change his mind and not tell them anything. But both of his siblings turned expectant gazes on him, and he pushed the self-doubt away to settle his nerves. "So there was another dream, a few days ago. There was another dark brown tabby, but this one had ice blue eyes. He was ganging up on this silvery she-cat with a gray and white tom and a scarred, pure white tom. They fought for a bit, and it was really bloody and painful-looking. The white one was holding the she-cat down while the tabby and the gray-and-white one shredded her with their claws.

"Then this black she-cat just suddenly appeared and helped the silver one by knocking away the white tom. The other toms were so surprised by her sudden appearance that their original target was able to overpower them and throw them off. There was a struggle between the five of them, she-cats against toms. They were speaking too, but I only briefly heard and understood them. The silver she-cat had apparently been learning fighting techniques from the tabby, because he said something about teaching her too well. It was shortly after that the she-cats lost and were both killed."

He could still remember the looks on their faces when the light faded from their eyes. The black she-cat's face had been distraught and regretful. She didn't want to die because she had things she wanted to do, cats to forgive and get to know. The silver one... Chaos shivered as he remembered. He'd never seen such pain and rage and hatred on any cat's face. She knew she'd failed, and she hated herself for it. Chaos didn't know how he knew what the she-cats were feeling, but he did.

Bane and Fern were quiet as they absorbed what he told them. Fern was trembling, her mind lost in the image he'd painted in their minds. Bane wasn't scared. Bane _never_ got scared. He got angry. He showed that now, clawing at the ground and lashing his tail through the air. "Seriously. Brain. Issues." It seemed all he could get out before he took a deep breath and steadied himself. "And today's dream? Is it just as bad?" Chaos nodded glumly, not wanting to look back at it but knowing it was necessary. Bane glanced at Fern, and Chaos gulped audibly. She had always been the most sensitive, even though Chaos was the smallest and the most fragile. This latest dream might break her... which was ironic, considering Chaos was the one having them.

Making his voice and touch as soft and soothing as possible, Chaos crept forward on his belly and placed his head on her shoulder. At least she stopped trembling. "I don't have to go on if you don't want me to, Fern. I think you and Bane have the gist of what's in these dreams. Do you want me to go on?" There. That left the decision up to her. Bane and Chaos kept their eyes on their only sister, waiting for her to do something.

Slowly, Fern nodded. The brothers exchanged a worried look before Bane pressed, "Are you sure? You can go on to hunt while Chaos tells me." Again, Fern nodded. Bane sighed and nodded at Chaos. "Go ahead. Try to soften it up for her, though. No going on about blood and stuff."

Chaos sighed and sat back, face grave. "I'm not sure _how_ to soften it up, but I'll try." The tabby kit looked thought back to his dream and almost immediately he was swamped with the sounds of shrieks and yowls. He started trembling before taking a deep breath. Only a dream. It couldn't hurt him. He described the dream as well as he could without making Fern worse than she was. Despite his attempts, soon the both of them were a mess, whimpering and crouching as close to the ground as they could.

Bane seemed to be the only one unaffected. _Seemed_ being the key word. He gave his littermates time to gather themselves, before clearing his throat. "So... So what do these dreams have to do with where you're leading us?"

He was thankful for the change in subject. He didn't want to dwell on those horrible nightmares anymore than he had to. "Ever since I first started having them, I've been seeing this..." Chaos hesitated, not sure what to call them. They didn't seem like shadows, but what else could he call them? "I'm... I'm not really sure how to describe them. They _look_ like shadows, but aren't... aren't _real_ shadows. They move independent of anything else and are always just out of sight."

Fern raised her head then, fixing Chaos with wide eyes. "Shades." The toms looked at her, waiting for explanations. "I've heard the older cats talk about them. They're called shades, ghosts of cats who died long ago. Do you remember the stories Mama used to tell us, about the Clans?" They nodded, Chaos more enthusiastic than Bane. As the smallest of the litter, the idea of a group of cats that looked after those unable to look after themselves had appealed to him the most. "Their spirits still wander around the lake, but very few cats have ever actually seen one. I'd thought they were just ghost stories, but..."

Bane gave an exaggerated shudder, his fur bristling and bushed out like it was the coldest night of leaf-bare. "Then I've been sleeping near dead cats for the past moon and not even know it. Creepy." It did it's job of lightening the mood, and both Chaos and Fern laughed a little, relaxing muscles they hadn't even realized were clenched. "Okay, so summary: you started having nightmares at the same time you've been seeing these shades." He narrowed his eyes in thought, staring at nothing but thinking hard. "Or... Or maybe it's the other way around. Which happened first, the shades or the dreams?"

The kit blinked in surprise. It seemed like such a random question. Now that he thought about it, though, the nightmares had started _after_ he'd seen his first shade. Chaos's green eyes widened in shock, and he breathed out, "That's it... The dreams I've been seeing aren't dreams, but _memories._ I've been seeing the last moments of the shades that have been haunting me." The siblings shared wide-eyed looks. It seemed so bizarre, so unreal, but it made perfect sense. "The shades want me to see something. I don't know what, but they've been leading me somewhere ever since they first appeared."

Chaos turned his head to look for those dancing shadows. The shade he'd last seen was exactly where it last was, seeming to be waiting for their discussion to finish. Chaos looked at his siblings, pleading with his eyes. It wasn't necessary. Bane stood and stretched each leg at a time. "Right. That's it, then. These ghosts are leading my baby brother somewhere we don't know, and I'll be damned if I let him go alone."

He looked at Fern, who nodded in agreement. The two looked at their younger sibling and Fern mewed almost cheerily, "Lead the way, Chaos!"

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**Words: 2809 on Google Docs**

**Pages: 4 on Google Docs**


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